Title IX policies aren’t understandable to students

Students lack familiarity with Title IX not just because they aren’t taught about it but because schools’ written Title IX policies aren’t understandable, a new study suggests. The bureaucratic, technical wording in those policies wasn’t written for them.

Researchers asked 200 undergraduates to analyze one of five typical Title IX policies, the kind that a college might post on its website. The students found critical terms and concepts incomprehensible. So a student who had been sexually assaulted wouldn’t get an understandable definition of sexual assault or what their school considers proof of sexual assault for Title IX hearings, Laura Beth Nielsen of Northwestern University and Kat Albrecht of Georgia State University reported in Inside Higher Ed.

The investigators also computationally analyzed the texts of 160 typical Title IX policies. On average, the policies were harder to read and comprehend than the Harvard Law Review and other publications.

Among their suggestions for improvements: Make the first point of contact for students who have been assaulted a confidential “concierge” to help them navigate resources.

Elsewhere

Six fraternities chose to disaffiliate from the University of Southern California rather than make changes to the ways they hold parties to reduce the likelihood of sexual assault.

Multiple postdoctoral fellows at the University of California, San Diego described mistreatment and bullying by their principal investigators there. It’s not always faculty behaving badly toward students, an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education notes: students also harass professors, especially targeting women, people of color, younger instructors, and less experienced teachers.

A judge ruled that Michigan State University is not complying with Title IX and gave the school 60 days to propose a plan to comply with the law. Michigan State University ruled that an adjunct professor who is a judge in Gennessee County, Mich. violated Title IX by sexually harassing an intern; he has been relieved of his in-person docket.

The Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation of the handling of alleged sexual harassment of a K-12 student by an employee of Decatur Township schools in Indianapolis, Ind. Parents accused a Parsons (Kan.) High School biology teacher of sexually harassing their daughter and complained that the school district did little to help, putting the teacher on administrative leave after the last day of school. The Perrysburg, Ohio board of education ruled that a majorette advisor violated Title IX. An appeals court rejected a softball coach’s claim that the University of Minnesota at Duluth fired her because she’s a lesbian.

The University of Hawai’i Athletics department announced a partnership to help students connect with financial contracts to use their name, image, or likeness for commercial purposes. Here’s my reading: Since the university is involved, the money from those contracts should be part of calculations when assessing whether the university devotes equitable resources to men’s and women’s athletics. Will that be the case?

A former basketball coach settled her discrimination suits against Texas Tech University and its athletics director. East Tennessee State University fired its head coach for women’s basketball; an internal investigation found that he kicked two players off the team and canceled their scholarships for dating each other, then lied to the university about the reasons for his actions. A Shelby County, Ala. K-12 school may be the first to be investigated for discriminating against a student because of her sexual orientation under Title IX’s expanded LGBTQ protections adopted by the Office for Civil Rights.

On the up side

Here’s an article that should be read by every state legislator who wants to ban transgender students from anything: A study published in Scientific American describes the wealth of research showing that gender-affirming policies benefit the health of transgender people. The National Women’s Law Center, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and 48 other organizations advocating for women’s and gender justice wrote to President Biden, thanking his administration for clarifying protections for LGBTQ or pregnant or parenting students in the proposed changes to Title IX regulations and urging him to hurry up and finish rules for athletics.

The Office for Civil Rights released a revised Case Processing Manual in July 2022, updated since the last version in August 2020, explaining the procedures it uses to investigate complaints under Title IX and other civil rights laws.

Where you’ll find me

Friday, October 28, 2022, 9 a.m. — I’ll be speaking at a Title IX conference at Northwestern University, Chicago. Details to come.

November 12, 2022 — I’m looking forward to two appearances at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Minneapolis. Join me first at a 9:30 a.m. panel on Women’s Politics: Finding a Way Out of No Way, and then at a Feminist Authors Showcase at 1:15 p.m..

February 2023 — I’ll speak at Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics in Ames, Iowa. Stay tuned for details.

*** Would you like to set up an in-person or Zoom session with me for your organization or book club? Reach me through my Contact page.***

The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5, which introduces Title IX’s application by the movement against sexual violence. I published an article in the Washington Post’s Made by History section, this one on “The true mother of Title IX. And why it matters now more than ever.” The Christian Science Monitor included 37 Words in two articles — a cover storyon “Title IX at 50” and a sidebar examining the racial gap among women athletes in colleges. The Smithsonian Magazine quoted me and my book in its article about Title IX. The Guardianmentioned 37 Words prominently in its story on the history of Title IX. Read about the Supreme Court’s history of curtailing Title IX and other civil rights laws in my article in The Washington PostMade by History section.

You can watch a panel about Title IX with me, basketball great Allison Hightower, and Prof. Sara Fields hosted by Tel Aviv University on July 10, 2022 at a conference on women and sport. The Post News Group highlighted 37 Words and one of the three main people the book profiles — civil rights attorney Pamela Price.  Women’s Running quoted my book in “A look at LGBTQ Athletes’ Fight for Protections Under Title IX.” The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out. The Wall Street Journal published a review of my book and I wrote a Letter to the Editor correcting some misinformation in that review.

Here are links to order your copy of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022).

And I’m not just a Title IX wonk, you know. My first book was about electric vehicles (EVs). See a recent presentation I gave about EV charging at apartments or condos on July 25, 2022 to the Planning Board of Lebanon, N.H. And I joined Clean Energy New Hampshire recently for a Zoom discussion about EVs in New Hampshire; find it at the 2:29 timepoint of this video. 

#titleix #37words